A blog about me, my Standard Poodle, Teddy, and whatever else I feel like including.
"[Poodles] are Labradors with a college education. After a day of retrieving, your Lab wants to curl up and snore in front of the fire. A poodle wants to be a fourth at bridge and tell naughty stories." -Anne Rogers Clark

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Agility Class Videos

I have compiled a few videos from the last couple of weeks of agility class. I was anxious to try out my new video camera on the agility field. I used a tripod because I really didn't want to take people away from their own dogs. I am happy to say that Teddy is doing so much better about zooming (knock wood). I am thrilled that he is really wanting to play with me and is trying really hard. Now the problem is ALL me. And I am getting really frustrated with myself. It seems that I can't do a rear cross. Ack! God bless all of the first dogs out there who have to put up with their handler's ineptness while we learn what the heck we are doing!

The first video is a rear cross exercise. As you can see it takes us a couple of tries to get it right. I was pointing my body in the wrong direction, and I wasn't letting Teddy get ahead of me enough to actually do a rear cross. You mean you have to let the dog go ahead of you to do a rear cross? I am so challenged!

Here we did some Greg Darrett box work. Good stuff. We were supposed to use 2 front crosses. I am having trouble getting my timing right on turns so that I don't send Teddy around or in front of a jump.

In this video, we got to make up our own course. Our instructor just wanted us to use each piece of contact equipment twice. That's why the sequence doesn't look smooth or flowy. At the beginning, Teddy got distracted by a border terrier puppy in an ex-pen on the field. He has to go check everything out. Sorry that you can't quite see the whole field.

This is just a short sequence that we did: tunnel-A frame-jump-weaves. I lost my connection with Teddy at the bottom of the A frame because I did not reward his 2 on/2 off contact, so he was looking for his treat. I was also glad that his weaves picked up speed by about half way through.

This sequence was kind of difficult for me because I am so handling challenged. We were supposed to try to run it first by staying somewhat in the middle. Again, you can see that I have trouble with my timing and body language. The second time, we were supposed to use a rear cross. I really struggled to not turn too quickly and pull him in front of the jump. I did some heavy editing so you couldn't see how challenged I really am. Boy do I have a lot of work to do. I think I need to take some private lessons without my dog. Poor Teddy!